 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Maruja
Date: 2011-11-07 19:40
My teacher is convinced that I would learn my scales better if I did it by ear rather than with the complicated mnemonics which I use at present. I think she thinks I have a better grasp of this than I have. Has anyone out there used a CD or web-based programme (not too expensive or one which locks me in for months) which would help with recognising (and maybe even singing) intervals and minor chords? It might be nice to have something I could sing along to in the car. My clarinet exam which is coming up, also requires some basic skills in this area.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2011-11-07 20:10
Memorizing scales is sort of a must. At least up to 4 sharps and 4 flats, major and minor. Colleges ask for it along with chromatic scales at auditions. Some high schools ask for these too. Memorizing in my opinion, isn't really the correct reply, but hearing the scales and knowing when you mess up is really what instructors, conductors, college auditions and high school auditions are looking for. Even in the military they will ask you to play some scales, usually up to 4 sharps and flats, major and both minor scales.. If you bring a book on scales to an audition most likely they won't be in favor of your preparation for the audition.
Get going, use a metronome, use a book at first, but as soon as you can, ditch the book. About a week or so. With the metronome the idea is to start slow and build up speed. Slur the scale, and articulate the scales.
Playing these scales everyday will improve your playing immensely. Even the top pro's in top symphonies usually play scales a lot, often everyday.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
Post Edited (2011-11-07 23:55)
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Author: Maruja
Date: 2011-11-07 20:44
Thank you. Yes, I know the value of scales and I have them memorised but not always accurately. My need is to be able to develop my ear so that I could, for instance, work out by ear a scale I have not met before. I don't use a scale book.
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Author: EEBaum
Date: 2011-11-07 21:23
If you play a scale by ear right now, can you tell whether the notes you played are correct? If so, just spending time picking random notes and playing scales on them should get you pretty far.
-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com
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Author: Ed
Date: 2011-11-07 21:43
I have heard good things about
http://www.earmaster.com/
but have not yet had the chance to try it out.
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2011-11-08 00:19
I didn't know you aren't using a book on scales. Good for you.
This brings me back to using the metronome. Scales are often written in 16th notes. I would play these notes as 8th notes or even 1/4 notes. At first work on one scale for a week. Slowly build up your speed everyday. You will be surprised how fast you will be able to play a C, G, whatever scale you start on, camparing the first day to the last day. You may see the speed increase a lot. There really isn't a trick here, just sitting down, starting slow everyday and build up to the 16th notes. After you get the hang of this try to play 3 or 4 scales a week.
I like to aim at playing the assorted scales 5 times correctly before moving up the speed on your metronome. Includes the chromatic scale, which you may want to work on first.
Don't forget to practice your tonguing. This will help you a lot.
Write back here with more questions. You are off to a great start. Keep us posted in a week or so with the results.
Oh, as you practice assorted scales your ear will tell you when you're wrong. Don't worry, the hearing problem will fix itself most likely in a very short time, a few weeks to perhaps a month or 2. It could happen in just a week.
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Author: Trevor M
Date: 2011-11-08 17:17
I second Ed's suggestion- my favorite all-around ear training program is EarMaster Pro (no financial interest on my part),
http://www.earmaster.com/
It's geared towards more than just scales but also chords and intervals, all pretty useful stuff for a musician. It even has a feature where you can sing into your computer's microphone (or play with, say, a clarinet) for the input. I don't know of any good in-the-car ear training stuff, unfortunately, even though there's got to be a lot of people who would buy it. There's a good set of recordings called Voice Lessons To Go, though, some of which have music theory.
For scales on clarinet: I think most people probably memorize them from reading them on paper and then, after they get some experience, are able to construct them by a combination of their ear and understanding the music theory behind them. I think that's probably ultimately faster than doing it by trial-and-error, but everybody's going to make mistakes when they memorize anyway.
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Author: Maruja
Date: 2011-11-08 22:03
Many thanks for those suggestions - I have checked out the two products suggested, both sound good. I shall probably go for the Voice to Go first (to get those intervals into my head) but will persevere with the scales on my own. They are coming.....
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Author: CarlT
Date: 2011-11-09 02:45
Justin said, "I like http://www.good-ear.com/. Worth looking into. There are also ear training apps for smartphones, some of which are free."
Well, I went to Justin's referenced site, and for some strange reason, I could not close/get rid of that website. Did anyone else have this problem? I finally had to re-boot my computer, because my task manager couldn't get rid of it. I hate when that happens.
CarlT
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Author: gigaday
Date: 2011-11-09 11:42
A couple of my centimos on scale playing.
Originally, I couldn't be bothered with written scales so I decided to learn them by ear. I am talking just major scales here at the moment. So eventually I can do all 12 fairly reliably (I'm a very slow learner) and my fingers seem to know where to go next.
Problems: 1) I didn't have clue as to what notes I was playing, it was just finger wiggling. 2) I couldn't actually play most of the scales when I was presented with them in writing.
Solutions: 1) I _think_ about the key sigs and what each note is now. 2) I found a written scale exercise in my tutor book (Otto Langey) which covers every major and minor scale in one go.
As a result of 2) I discovered that I had a lot of trouble reading and remembering accidentals. To help with this I took 2 fairly long articulation exercise from Langey and transposed them both into 9 keys (up to 4# and 4b), printed them out and I pick one at random to practise.
After several months of this (I did say I was slow) I am getting to a point where I think I might have a go at the minor scales too ...
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Author: Dharma
Date: 2011-11-09 12:08
gigaday wrote:
> As a result of 2) I discovered that I had a lot of trouble
> reading and remembering accidentals. To help with this I took
> 2 fairly long articulation exercise from Langey and transposed
> them both into 9 keys (up to 4# and 4b), printed them out and I
> pick one at random to practise.
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing that!
When I was young, unemployed and very much into classical guitar, I spent 2 hours every day playing scales and arpeggios. After 6 months I knew my round the fretboard pretty well! Not everyone is in a position to spend that amount of time on scales and drills, but the more you put in...
-----
A horse is drawn to water, but a pencil must be lead.
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